Covenant Sudanese Refugee Stabbed in Gang Attack

CHICAGO, IL (May 31, 2002) - A Sudanese refugee who attends Grace Covenant Church was one of three refugees stabbed Saturday evening when their group was attacked by gang members at a local park.

Five Sudanese refugees who attend Grace Covenant were among a group of 10 playing basketball at the park when more than a dozen gang members assaulted them. Three of the refugees were stabbed before police were called. One of them, Grace Covenant parishioner James Deng, was treated for a cut to the abdomen and released from Illinois Masonic Hospital Monday. He is staying with another parishioner this week. Another man was seriously injured, but was released from the hospital Wednesday. The third individual was cut, but did not require hospitalization.

Four gang members were arrested and charged with various crimes. One gang member who stabbed the refugees is being charged with simple battery, according to one of Deng's friends. A court date is being planned for June.

"We always play at the park and we've been harassed before," Deng said. "But we didn't know that they had weapons this time. We don't want any problems - we came here for peace."

Deng and his friends are living on Chicago's northeast side, a few miles and two bus rides from Grace Covenant. Deng is working in the Merchandise Mart building in downtown Chicago as an elevator operator. He said that he and his friends were playing half-court basketball when the gang members interrupted the game. The refugees asked the other group to leave, but the gang members began to provoke the refugees, according to Deng. One gang member threw a glass bottle at Deng minutes before the gang members pulled out weapons.

It seemed a cruel irony that the Sudanese refugees would be in such danger from a simple pickup basketball game. After all, they had come to the United States to escape persecution. Known as the "Lost Boys," Deng was among some 10,000 children and young adults that were uprooted from their country during Sudan's civil war in 1987. After spending nearly a decade living in a Kenya refugee camp, Deng arrived in the U.S. in September 2001.

In November 2000, Grace Covenant Church began hosting refugees - a mother and daughter - and last summer the church agreed to sponsor five men. Grace Covenant now sponsors 18 "Lost Boys." The church met the Sudanese through World Relief connections and a relationship with a suburban Chicago congregation. Grace Covenant parishioner Pam Hubbard said that about 150 Sudanese refugees have been settled in Chicago's north side.

The Project Phoenix group meets weekly with sponsors who come from a number of church denominations. Church and Project Phoenix connections have helped sponsors better equip the refugees through medical care and education, among other things.

Deng has taken English courses and has dealt with bad weather, major cultural adjustments and other hardships. God is bigger than this hardship too, he said.

"God brought me out of the hardness and the extreme conditions," Deng said of his trip across Sudan. "We lost 5,000 boys in the river. But God was with me. In the Bible, it says that nothing is hard if you are praying. Praying makes me feel strong. I cannot cry - God protected me in a difficult thing and I can attest to God's love. Maybe there is something that God wants to show me in this (stabbing)."

Grace Covenant Church is planning a rally Sunday evening at Potawatomi Park, located at the corner of Walcott and Rogers Avenue in Chicago. For more information on the rally or about the needs of Sudanese refugees sponsored by Grace and other churches, contact church staff at 773-478-0208 or Pam Hubbard at 773-267-9238.

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